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With both safety and environmental challenges in mind, T&E commissioned an independent study from the automotive research institute FKA aimed at identifying the optimal shape and dimensions of a tractor (the part of the lorry that pulls the trailer), integrating new aerodynamic solutions and improving both active and passive safety.

The German government has approved the use of oversized lorries – known as ‘megatrucks’ or ‘gigaliners’ – for a five-year trial. But even if doubts about the decision’s legality are removed, the lorries will effectively be allowed in less than half the country, as some federal states have banned them.

The long-running saga of the EU’s rules on road use charges for heavy goods vehicles has come to an end – at least for now – with final agreement on the third version of the Eurovignette directive. The directive comes into effect as several states, both inside and outside the EU, are introducing or considering road user charges.

Future Porsche sports cars could get away with being almost four times noisier than regular cars while high performance versions of the BMW 3 series, Audi A4 and Mini Cooper could become almost twice as loud under German plans for weak international limits on vehicle noise (1). Noise reductions for lorries would also be delayed until 2028 if the proposal from the German transport and environment ministries is accepted. T&E is calling on the EU to set its own stringent noise standards for cars and lorries in a proposal expected later this month.

The French government has confirmed it will introduce a distance-based tax on lorries at the beginning of 2013. The confirmation follows a legal challenge to the government’s decision to award the contract for collecting the tolls to an Italian company. The tax will apply to all lorries using national roads and some local roads.

Hungary’s supreme court has awarded financial compensation to two residents who complained that their lives were made a misery and their houses reduced in value by speeding lorries along highway 86 in the west of the country.

EU countries have finally been given clearance to charge road hauliers for the air pollution and noise costs caused by lorries. But they will not be allowed to charge for the costs of congestion, accidents and climate changing gases. In a further weakening of the proposed directive, governments can exempt lorries under 12 tonnes from charges.